about this site | email
     
 

NYC 2003 - My First Marathon
by Chris Lear

Chris Lear

Over the next five weeks, Chris Lear, a Colorado-based full-time sales representative and freelance writer, will be sharing his training diary as he prepares to run in this year's edition of the ING New York City Marathon — his marathon debut. Lear, like the vast majority of this year's entrants, is not a full-time runner. Yet, as for most of the competitors running this year's event, November 2 will nonetheless represent the culmination of months of hard work and planning. Each finisher, in the end, will have his or her own story to tell. In coming weeks, Lear will share with you his story: his goals, dreams, triumphs, and disappointments as he prepares to tackle the 26.2-mile behemoth for the first time. He hopes you'll enjoy the ride…

Entry #7, September 25, 2003 — Thinking Big

Tick, tock, tick, tock: I needed only glance at the golden veins of aspens that coursed up the mountains near Breckenridge, Colorado, this weekend (where I was heading to celebrate Oktoberfest) to know that NYC 2003 draws ever near. Until now, I've been focusing on intermittent, rudimentary milestones: my first 90-minute run, my first track workout, and gaining satisfaction as I've checked 'em off the list one by one. This list is just mental, because I've deliberately chosen not to keep a training log as I prepare for November 2. Why, I figured when this began, flog myself for missing a day here or a workout there when my life's routine will by necessity force me to do so? I don't want to look back at a log filled with zeros. Moreover, since I started my training virtually from scratch, I didn't want to get discouraged by peeking into my log to discover that I was only running eight- or nine-minute miles that I clocked by sun.

Finishing was the only goal then, but now that (counting this weekend) I have four two-plus hour runs to my credit, I'm starting to wonder just how fast I might make it to Central Park. Yet now that I finally feel able to commence the kind of work that might help me lop some minutes off my time, I find myself hemmed in by the calendar like J-Lo in hot pants. Just over five weeks remain till go-time, and since I know that race week will be nothing more than a glorified taper, that leaves me with just four weeks to steel myself for whatever NYC 2003 has in store.

Twenty-eight days... The 28 forthcoming days will make or break my marathon debut. I laugh at the phrasing "marathon debut" because it sounds so professional, and I'm well, not, but I ain't rolling over just yet. I'm gonna push the envelope because I must, and I started that this past week. From Thursday through Sunday, I ran a short track workout to get the wheels turning, two 90-minute runs, and a two-hour run. Even better, my long run and one of the 90-minute runs were accomplished at an elevation of over 10,000 feet in Breckenridge.

I ran Sunday's 90-minute jaunt up the Colorado Trail with an old friend, Andy "Bigs" Biglow from New Jersey, who just nailed his first full Ironman. You may know him as the Pearl Izumi guy: he's the model in the ads for Pearl Izumi's new line of running shoes. It's his first modeling gig and it's about time. For years my old Jersey friends and I have grumbled that if we only had Bigs' looks, man, it'd be all over...

Anyway, Bigs and I did a lot of running together before I did my first half-marathon — a 1:09 effort on a net-downhill course in Texas two years back. I felt like a flyer today, so afterwards I asked him if he remembered any of our track sessions from that time. It was a totally loaded question, one that I hoped would give my increased sense of fitness a seal of approval. Bigs answered by recalling the time we did repeat miles with former CU buffalo Mike Friedberg (now an assistant coach at Washington State University) and triathlete Ryan Bolton. We started that day in 5:18 and ended around five-flat five miles later. Considering I did a mile on the track in 5:24 this week, and felt winded doing so, that workout from a few years back seems positively EPO-lian, as in, if I don't score some EPO right quick, I ain't running those times any time soon.

Don't judge. That was my personal mantra when I began and now is not the time to abandon it. You won't find me passed out face-down in my dandy new Oktoberfest beer stein wearing nothing but my favorite lederhosen. I'm gonna choose to be more like the Buffalo I saw off the side of the road around Fairplay, Colorado, this afternoon. When I pulled my car off the side of the road just feet from the big guy and rolled down the window, he coolly turned his head and stared right back at me, straight in the eye. He may be buffalo burger yet, but for now, he ain't sweatin'.

Later,
Chris
     
Nothing contained herein may be reproduced online or in any form without the express written permission of the New York Road Runners Club, Inc.